No one knows exactly how long the gum tree next to the "monkey house" on the Oppenheimers' Parktown estate had stood, but the best guesses are that it was well rooted before gold was found on the Reef and before the randlords began building their mansions along the ridge that now runs alongside the M1 highway.

Joburg ratepayer Adolf Kronfuss is a very happy man. Last month, he broke down in tears at the National Consumer Tribunal hearings while explaining how he had been handed a R246 000 electricity bill for a building in Bertrams that has been vacant for six years.